Guardian Prize 27,872 / Nutmeg

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This is Nutmeg’s 100th cryptic puzzle and she has finally made it to the Prize slot – hurrah!

There are some solvers here who only do the cryptic puzzle on Saturdays and so might not be familiar with Nutmeg’s puzzles, which are noted for their witty, elegant and meticulous cluing, along with delightfully smooth surfaces – and there’s ample evidence of that here. I think it’s fair to say that this is not Nutmeg at her toughest, which may seem surprising, for a Prize, but I gather that setters don’t submit puzzles specifically for the Prize slot and it’s up to the editor to select an appropriate one. There have been some comments, too, that these days, it does not seem to be the policy, necessarily, to have a more difficult puzzle for the Prize – in order to encourage more people to have a go? However that may be, if this is your first crack at a Nutmeg, I hope you enjoyed it.

Many thanks, Nutmeg – and congratulations on the milestone. 😉 I hope we’ll see you back on a Saturday soon.

Update: as Cookie points out, in column 4 we have CENTURY and, symmetrically, HUNDRED in 12. Apologies for not spotting it, Nutmeg.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 One helps to get a seat for someone standing (7)
ELECTOR
Cryptic definition

5 Supported DUP, the old leaders having gone (6)
UPHELD
[d]UP [t]HE [o]LD, minus initial letters [leaders] – the DUP have latterly been almost as useful to crossword setters as to Mrs May

9 Almost lose it, as one will with last jigsaw piece (4,1,3)
HAVE A FIT
Double / cryptic definition

10 Engendering invasion by America of constituent state (6)
CAUSAL
USA [America] in CAL [constituent state]

12 Attitude of cynic from Tyneside given seats at random (12)
NEGATIVENESS
NE [Tyneside] + an anagram [at random] of SEATS GIVEN

15 Note on a cross in register: free of charge (3-7)
NON-TAXABLE
N [note] + ON + A X [cross] in TABLE [register]

17 Toilet water unavailable in station (3)
LOO
[water]LOO [station]

19 Key was first put in the wrong way (3)
DEL
A reversal [put in the wrong way] of LED [was first] – ‘key’ always used to be A B C D E F or G – now it’s just as likely to be DEl, ESC, ALT …

20 Would-be rulers not yet loving society? (10)
PRETENDERS
PRE TENDER [not yet loving] + S [society] – examples being James Edward Stuart [the old] and Charles Edward Stuart – Bonnie Prince Charlie  [the young] Pretender, or the more imaginatively named Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, pretenders to the throne of Henry VII – all remembered from my A Level History

22 Winter sportsperson in form takes extraordinary run (6,6)
FIGURE SKATER
FIGURE [form] + an anagram [extraordinary] of TAKES + R [run]

26 Where most are by midnight, assuming resistance is instinctive (6)
INBRED
R [resistance] in IN BED [where most are by midnight]

27 Primarily a lovable rogue (5,3)
ABOVE ALL
An anagram [rogue] of A LOVABLE – a lovely surface

28 Surgery ultimately stops feminist looking older (6)
GREYER
[surger]Y in [Germaine] GREER [feminist]

29 East Ender’s caught peculiar part of anatomy (7)
EARDRUM
‘EARD [East Ender’s ‘caught’] + RUM [peculiar]

 

Down

1 Parrot house south of city (4)
ECHO
EC [city] + HO [house]

2 Resent messenger dropping round (4)
ENVY
ENV[o]Y [messenger] minus o [round]

3 Call for small missile to tip unfavourable balance (5,3)
TRADE GAP
A reversal [to tip] of PAGE [call for] + DART [small missile]

4 Dish from Agra, it appears (5)
RAITA
Hidden, appropriately, in agRA IT Appears

6 Plea from competitor having once changed sides (6)
PRAYER
P[l]AYER [competitor] with l [left] changed to R [right] – the ‘once’ is an illustration of Nutmeg’s meticulous cluing

7 Yachtsmen moved by these seasonal tales? (10)
EASTERLIES
EASTER LIES – seasonal tales

8 Criminal should lose accommodation made for his children, maybe (5,5)
DOLL’S HOUSE
An anagram [criminal] of SHOULD LOSE

11 Rent regularly appended to account for lodgings (6)
BILLET
BILL [account] + [r]E[n]T

13 A Parisienne, fading away when imprisoned, not improving (10)
UNEDIFYING
UNE [a Parisienne] + DYING [fading away] round IF [when]

14 Not allowed to enter, being ill (ie poorly) (10)
INELIGIBLE
An anagram [poorly] of BEING ILL IE

16 Apprehension remains after troops turned up (6)
ARREST
REST [remains] after a reversal [turned up] of RA [Royal Artillery – troops] – a neat definition

18 Quick check when finished (4-4)
ONCE-OVER
ONCE [when] OVER [finished]

21 Briskly move coke ashes for building blocks (6)
BREEZE
Double definition – I was totally unaware of the second: ‘furnace refuse used in making breeze brick, breeze blocks or breeze concrete’ [Chambers] – I always wondered why they were called breeze blocks! [in crosswords, I always immediately think of lego when I see ‘building blocks’]

23 Proceed at leisure, having skill to rake in millions (5)
AMBLE
ABLE [having skill] round M [millions]

24 Standard cut by one or two? (4)
PAIR
I [one] in PAR [standard]

25 Colour choice (4)
Double definition
PLUM

45 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,872 / Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. Easier than expected but very enjoyable. I breezed through most of the puzzle but then took forever, even with all the crossers, to get BREEZE.

  2. Thanks to Eileen and Nutmeg

    Nutmeg is a top setter, and this is a very good crossword, but I couldn’t, and still can’t, see how 9a works.

    I left it blank last week for longer than the rest of the puzzle combined, and entered the apparently correct solution only when I was fed up staring at it.

  3. Thanks Eileen. Put me down as one of those who only does the Saturday cryptic and hasn’t encountered Nutmeg before but was pleased to make her acquaintance. Something of a mix I thought, some answers wrote themselves in immediately but others required more thought. I had to look up the second meaning of BREEZE too. I’m not sure about when= if in 13d and note it does double duty in 18d by meaning once – it’s a versatile word for setters.

  4. It may just be a matter of me being unpredictably in or out of the zone, but I found this easier that several recent midweek puzzles. Indeed, compared with the previous prize (Paul’s jigsaw) which took me about 24hrs, this took closer to 24 mins. I had a lot of fun with it, my only complaint was that it didn’t last longer.

    Nutmeg usually gets a lot of praise in these quarters for smooth clues as Eileen said, and deservedly so, but this puzzle had a clue that struck me as a bit of an anomaly, 24a EARDRUM. Common practice seems to dictate that when the East London trope is used, there is an obligation that the answer exhibit the actual East London sound, not solely the spelling of the sound. So it would have worked for something like URDU (approximately), but not here, imo.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

  6. Like Biggles A, I had a ? for when= if, and as for Eileen and others, dnk the ash meaning of breeze, hence loi. Yes an easy Saturday, but having now made the prize slot, I look forward to more and perhaps tougher ones from Nutmeg. Slow to get echo and elector, looking for an exotic parrot and a colloquial term for a pollie’s offsider. Lots to like, thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

  8. Thanks to NUtmeg(a new name for me) and to Eileen for explaining it so well.

    Found this enjoyable, if rapid by my standards. The NW corner was a holdout and so my LOI were ELECTOR (did not see it could be a cryptic def, and was trying to work in the ELECTORS who used to be “Kings” in parts of Germany years ago), TRADE GAP (got diverted to TRADE WAR) and NON-TAXABLE (kept looking for NON-PAYABLE — this is a clever misdirection in the use of ‘charge'[).

    I’m no expert but it struck me the construction of clues seems very “Ximenean”, with every word serving an exact purpose.

    Apart from NON-TAXABLE, I also really liked EASTERLIES and RAITA. I rather biffed in BREEZE, so the learned explanation here is much appreciated.

    Thanks again Nutmeg, Eileen and other contributors here.

  9. Biggles A @3 and grantinfreo @6

    I wasn’t comfortable writing ‘IF [when]’ at 13dn and expected some comment. When we write, for instance, ‘I’ll do this when / if I can’, I think we’re pointing up the distinction between the two, rather than suggesting that they’re interchangeable in meaning. I can’t find any authority other than Chambers’ ‘if = whenever’, which is not convincing. There’s no problem with when = once in 18dn, where the meaning is ‘as soon as’: ‘I’ll be with you once / when I’ve finished this’ – but I don’t think you were suggesting that there was one.

    Dansar  @2

    I’ll confess to having a bit of a problem in understanding 9ac myself. It could surely apply to any piece of the jigsaw – the last one is bound to be a fit!

  11. EC for city? I have come across it before, but I do not understand. Can someone explain, please?

  13. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.  An enjoyable puzzle.  27a ABOVE ALL was very clever.  These days I do usually find the prize crossword not as hard as some of the midweek ones (unless it’s a special such as an alphabetical).

    I didn’t really understand the “almost” in 9a.  You could say “I completely lost it” / “I had a fit”, but if you “almost” lose it surely you stop short of having a fit?

  14. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. As others have said, very enjoyable, but not Nutmeg at her toughest. This largely unpacked quite readily, and I liked figure skater and easterlies. Thanks again to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  15. Congratulations on your 100th puzzle Nutmeg and thank you Eileen for a helpful blog.

    Most enjoyable. Like Epee Sharkey @8, I kept wanting to enter NON-PAYABLE at 15a, but finally thought “cross” might give X – one of my favourite clues along with those for EASTERLIES, UPHELD, TRADE GAP and PRAYER.

  21. Eileen @ 9. How kind of you to respond. I have been taken to task previously, and quite justifiably, for querying synonyms so was a little cautious this time. A syllogism occurs to me:

    if = when

    when = once

    therefore if = once.

    reductio ad absurdum?

  22. Well spotted, Cookie! And well done again, Nutmeg. [So much for my theorising in the preamble. 😉 ]

    Biggles A – nice try but a step too far, I think. 😉

  23. Well spotted Cookie, and well done Nutmeg on attaining it and on weaving it, twice and differently, into the grid. Super effort!

  25. Well spotted Cookie!  And as I should have said in my previous comment, many congratulations Nutmeg.

    I thought “if” = “when” was fine in 13d.  How about: “We tend to stay in if it rains” / “We tend to stay in when it rains”?

  26. Eileen@9 and others.
    I’ve heard the expression “I’ll do it if and when” which in tne context has meant “if I get around to it” but it doesn’t make sense does it? “If or when” would.

  27. Thanks Eileen

    Regarding the if/when comments above, from Collins Thesaurus:

    Synonyms of ‘if’
    2 (conjunction) in the sense of when
    She gets very upset if I exclude her from anything.
    Synonyms when, whenever, every time, any time

  29. Didn’t quite finish, as I rejected BREEZE on the grounds that “breezing into” a room is moving casually, not briskly, but Collins set me straight post-solve. The other meaning was new to me.

    I agree with Lord Jim @13 that having a fit is losing it, no almost about it. That was my only question mark in an otherwise perfectly set puzzle. Thanks and hearty congratulations to Nutmeg, and thanks to Eileen for her usual excellent blog.

  30. NON TAXABLE was LOI because I had bunged in NON PAYABLE and I see that some others did too. Not much else to say really as most of it went in pretty quickly- by my standards anyway!
    Thanks and congratulations Nutmeg.

  31. We finished this handily, with ABOVE ALL a particular favourite. Have struggled with Nutmeg in the past, but getting on her wavelength better. As a child was told breeze blocks were so called because they had holes so the wind could get through, and believed that for 60-odd years until today. So thanks to Eileen for undeceiving me as well as for her excellent blog. And how clever of the setter to weave in the concealed CENTURY & HUNDRED.

  32. What a delightful puzzle, and a fine blog to interpret it (needed for a few answers).

    21d I too thought they were called breeze blocks because they could let the breezes through.  The ash meaning is a TILT for me.

    7d Why are yachtsmen easterlies?  Must be another TEKEM (thing everybody knows except me).

    Suzydimple @7 — the whole of London is a city, same as Paris or New York or Shanghai, but the part called “the City” is the financial district (in postal code EC, or East Central).  The New York equivalent is Wall Street.  Any number of characters in fiction — not current fiction, is my impression, but of earlier decades — are described vaguely by other characters as “something in the City,” meaning they have some kind of finance-related occupation at one of the high-flying EC firms.

  33. Hi Valentine @32

    In 7dn, easterlies are winds and the definition [underlined in the clue] is ‘Yachtsmen moved by these’.

  35. Very enjoyable puzzle. I usually only do the Prize these days, but in earlier times have enjoyed many of Nutmeg’s lovely puzzles. Congratulations to her on her 100th. I particularly liked 27a, ABOVE ALL, as well as 5a, UPHELD; 24a, PAIR and 25a PLUM. I didn’t get the wordplay for 3d, TRADE GAP but did choose it over TRADE WAR based on the definition.

    I did have the same thoughts as Dr Whatson @ 4 re ‘eard, and am glad he expressed the point so well to save me the trouble. I also wondered about the “almost” in 9a, HAVE A FIT. No one seems to have offered a justification for it here, either.

     

     

    Eileen @9 re last piece of jigsaw

  36. Thanks Eileen and Nutmeg I agree it was nice to see Nutmeg in the Saturday Prize slot, and this was definitely an easier puzzle than Paul’s effort the previous week !

    I don’t know about an easier puzzle on a Saturday tempting more solvers to attempt it. The only reason I attempt the Prize is because it avoids two days without a puzzle – I certainly don’t submit it if I complete t, so far as I’m concerned the prizes on offer aren’t worth the price of the stamp and haven’t been for several years

  37. Oops! I see I missed the note I made for Eileen @9 about the jigsaw puzzle piece. I think the point is, Eileen, that with the last piece, you’re guaranteed to have a fit, since there will only be one place for it to go, while you may not be able to find a fit when the jigsaw is incomplete. Another example of Nutmeg being scrupulously careful, I think.

  38. Yep agree Tony, you can’t NOT have a fit with the last piece. But still, why ‘almost’?

  39. Tony @ 35 and 37

    I agree with you [and Lord Jim and DaveinNCarolina] about ‘almost’ in 9ac. I didn’t express myself well re the jigsaw piece: it’s precisely because there’s only one place for it to go that it seems odd to me to talk about it fitting! – but let’s leave it.

    Re ‘EARD: I do see what you and Dr WhatsOn are saying but, at the time of solving, it didn’t bother me. I took the clue as simply indicating that ‘heard’ is unaspirated and, once you’ve removed the h, you’re left with a string of letters, to combine with another string of letters to get the answer. [The ‘caught’ rather clouds the issue, since, for once, it isn’t a homophone indicator. 😉 ]

  40. Saw the HUNDRED and CENTURY.

    Strangely, I though it was a tribute to Iris Murdoch whose 100th anniversary fell on 15th July.

    Obviously over-skilled in interpretation!

     

  41. Thanks Eileen for another excellent blog. Took me forever to see that it was breeze, my LOI; as said earlier I equate it with casual rather than brisk. Did not know re breeze blocks,so thanks for the elucidation.
    Thanks and congratulations to Nutmeg for the 100th excellent puzzle.

  42. grantinfreo @38

    Yes, I also queried “almost” (@35). I can only think that it was simply to help the surface since, while you’re guaranteed to have a fit with the last piece of a jigsaw you’re by no means certain to lose that last piece. Of course, any lost piece of a jigsaw puzzle becomes “the last piece”.

  43. I like the easier prize crossword! As a relative newbie to the cryptic I feel really chuffed and encouraged when I see a puzzle I can make some headway with. As to the quality of the prize, who cares, it’s the honour of winning that counts. If the prize were a lemon it would have pride of place on my mantlepiece.
    So many thanks to Nutmeg for a puzzle completed over three days, and thanks to Eileen for the blog

  44. Eileen could you explain why use of once in 9d is meticulous cluing? Thanks for blog and thanks to nutmeg for some delightful and satisfying clues.

  45. joleroi, Nutmeg is changing sides only once – PLAYER becoming PRAYER.

    Solvers could have changed the R of PLAYER but they shouldn’t.

    So, indeed, that is meticulous cluing.

    That said, ‘EC’ = ‘city’ is not, upper case does matter!

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